First death from Congo virus reported in Karachi

KARACHI: A woman lost her life to Congo virus at the city’s Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre on Tuesday becoming the first reported death of the year in Pakistan owing to the disease.

Reports revealed that a 35-year-old woman, resident of Karachi’s Orangi Town had been brought to the Jinnah Hospital in a critical condition.

It was confirmed by the hospital’s Executive Director Dr Seemin Jamali that the patient had been infected with the Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) which later took her life.

The disease is transmitted to the body through a tick that attaches itself to the skin of cattle that transports the virus from the animal to people who come in contact with it.

As per reports by the World Health Organization, the virus is said to have a fatality rate ranging from 10 percent to 40 percent with its symptoms being fever, muscle aches, faintness, neck and back aches, sore eyes, sensitivity to light, nausea, diarrhea and sore throat.

Last year, the city encountered 41 people infected by the disease out of which 16 lost their lives.